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Justice John Sproat will release his ruling at 10 a.m. on whether McCallion violated conflict of interest law in votes at Peel Region council in 2007.

92 year-old Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion arrives at Brampton Superior Court in April 11 where she will be testified in a conflict-of-interest case. “I can’t recall,” McCallion repeated about a dozen times when asked about details of meetings.
(Tara Walton / Toronto Star)

Mississauga will learn Friday whether 92-year-old Hazel McCallion will continue her long run as mayor.

The decision in McCallion’s conflict of interest case will be released at 10 a.m. by Ontario Superior Court Justice John Sproat.

Mississauga resident Elias Hazineh has accused McCallion of violating the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act when she moved amendments and took part in votes at Peel Region council in 2007 that stood to save her son’s company $11 million in development charges.

Hazineh lodged his application in 2011 and full hearings began in early April this year.

McCallion’s lawyers began their defence with a counterattack on Hazineh, questioning his credibility and calling him a “straw man” propped up by the mayor’s longtime political foe, former MP and city councillor Carolyn Parrish.

Hazineh, who has worked on Parrish’s campaigns, testified that he brought the application forward after reading about the regional votes when the Mississauga Judicial Inquiry into McCallion’s dealings with her son’s project wrapped up in 2011.

McCallion’s lawyers argued that she voted, in her role as a Peel council member, to give builders already in the pipeline a break on new higher development fees, grandfathering-in lower fees to benefit the builders and Mississauga residents in general at a time when construction was needed to help the economy.

They also argued that McCallion did not know her son was a principal of World Class Developments, the company that was planning to build a $1.5 billion hotel-convention centre in downtown Mississauga which McCallion desperately wanted.

A WCD consultant testified during examinations that they were working “feverishly” toward the new development charge deadlines set by the votes at Peel Region, as the company would have saved $11 million if it had met the deadline.

Surprisingly, McCallion’s lawyers did not introduce any affidavits from her son, Peter, nor did they call him to testify in his mother’s defence.

Lawyers argued that McCallion didn’t even know about WCD’s plans or progress while the development charges were up for a vote in the fall of 2007.

Hazineh’s lawyer, Tom Richardson, argued that it was impossible for McCallion to have been unaware of WCD’s progress. Richardson went through McCallion’s appointment book prior to and throughout 2007 before the judge. It showed numerous meetings she had with WCD’s principals, including her son.

“I can’t recall,” McCallion repeated about a dozen times when asked about details of the meetings.

She testified that she couldn’t remember if the meetings actually happened or what was discussed if they did occur.

She also testified that when she signed as a witness to a trust agreement that stated her son was a principal of WCD, she had not read the document. “It’s a very dark restaurant,” McCallion said, explaining that she never reviewed the document during the dinner meeting with her son and another WCD principal at a Toronto restaurant in January 2007.

She maintained that she thought her son was only representing WCD as a real estate agent. Richardson argued that even if that was the case, Peter McCallion stood to make millions from the deal.

During her testimony, McCallion attempted to shift the focus to Brampton Mayor Susan Fennell.

She admitted seconding a motion to extend the grandfather deadlines so more developments could qualify, but testified that Fennell introduced and pushed the motion through with no debate: “This was raised by Mayor Fennell rather late in the process …The mover is the one that wants the action, something to happen.”

Richardson called the “last-minute” motion Fennell moved and McCallion supported “reckless” and “extraordinary,” as it would have saved developers tens of millions of dollars that Peel taxpayers would have to make up for.

Asked why she supported Fennell’s motion, given the burden on taxpayers, McCallion replied: “That’s a good question.”

McCallion testified that right before seeking the 11th-hour amendment at a Peel Region council meeting in September 2007, Fennell had asked her to support the motion to help developers in Brampton.

However, in her affidavit for the case, Fennell stated she never spoke to anybody before she introduced her motion.

McCallion did not declare a conflict of interest when the development charge issue was dealt with. Under the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act, if she were to be found guilty of a conflict, she would have to be removed from office — unless the judge deems her actions were inadvertent or resulted from an error in judgment.

McCallion’s lawyers argued, after laying out their defence, that their client should not be removed from office if found guilty, because her actions were inadvertent.

It wouldn’t be the first time the mayor would be let off for that reason. She was found guilty of a conflict in 1982 for voting on a land purchase deal that could have directly benefited her family. But she was not removed from office because the judge deemed her actions were an error in judgment.

More than 30 years later, McCallion’s future again rests on a judge’s ruling.

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